Arcade Spirits review

Fiction Factory Games bring us a punchy little romantic visual novel named Arcade Spirits! The year is 20XX and you’ve just begun your job at the Funplex–a blindingly neon cabinet video game arcade that is as cool as the people hanging out in it. What you say and how you say it is everything in this universe–for making the one you have eyes for swoon, is the name of the game.

With a slick cyberpunk vibe going on, this story sets us in the not so distant future where technology is integrated in every aspect of daily life. Downloading a neat application on your phone, you work with an AI that seems to be able to pinpoint every detail of your personality. Proceed with caution or fully embrace it, this application spells out where you sit on a number of issues through the decisions you make in speech. It’s a neat way to handle branching paths and if you so choose, you can keep a close eye on it. If not, you’re more than welcome to throw caution to the wind and go wherever your heart or wit take you.

Watch the Arcade Spirits release date announcement trailer below:

You’ll meet a variety of colourful characters in Arcade Spirits, each with their own bold personalities attached. There’s more than enough to keep you busy in the way of dialogue, as by protagonist chance would have it, you are the center of attention. For many reasons or another, you’ll find yourself coming in contact with everyone, usually to discuss their own unique problems. As the current runs deep to romance one of these lucky people, saying certain things will either turn them on, or turn them off.

Arcade Spirits is fun to play in a variety of different ways. You can answer to stay true to your real self, your character’s self, or simply to say whatever the person you want to romance wants to hear. In the latter case, it’s not always straightforward, posing a fun challenge to capture particular endings. The replayability stands strong, which is not something every visual novel can say has going for it.

View some Arcade Spirits screenshots in our gallery:

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Credit PQube / Fiction Factory Games

Aside from reading everything, there’s a fair bit of voice acting–and it’s well done! Everyone delivers their lines well, helping flesh out the characters and adding to the overall experience. It serves the format well; you’ll find yourself becoming attached to some people over others based on the package presented. The design of each character is very well done–nobody looks, sounds, acts the same, and it’s brilliant. This cocktail of hardwork on Fiction Factory Games behalf is rewarded with the player being able to immerse themselves in this wacky timeline with ease.

There are also little tidbits that are appreciated along the way, such as save states, and aesthetic menu changes. If you enjoy visual novels, Arcade Spirits comes as a fantastic recommendation. It’s got quite a bit of complexity for being a lighthearted romantic tale that you, the player, write. Love is in the air, and it’s 20XX, so time to look alive and get to romancing!

Arcade Spirits was reviewed using a digital code supplied by the publisher.